Psychiatry has lagged behind many clinical specialties in recognizing the importance of narrative for understanding and effectively treating disease. With this book, Bradley Lewis makes the challenging and compelling case that psychiatrists need to promote the significance of narrative in their practice as well.Narrative already holds a prominent place in psychiatry. Patient stories are the foundation for diagnosis and the key to managing treatment and measuring its effectiveness. Even so, psychiatry has paid scant scholarly attention to the intrinsic value of patient stories. Fortunately, the study of narrative outside psychiatry has grown exponentially in recent years, and it is now possible for psychiatry to make considerable advances in its appreciation of clinical stories. Narrative Psychiatry picks up this intellectual opportunity and develops the tools of narrative for psychiatry. Lewis explores the rise of narrative medicine and looks closely at recent narrative approaches to psychotherapy. He uses philosophic and fictional writings, such as Anton Chekhov's play Ivanov, to develop key terms in narrative theory (plot, metaphor, character, point of view) and to understand the interpretive dimensions of clinical work. Finally, Lewis brings this material back to psychiatric practice, showing how narrative insights can be applied in psychiatric treatments -- including the use of psychiatric medications.Nothing short of a call to rework the psychiatric profession, Narrative Psychiatry advocates taking the inherently narrativecentered patientpsychiatrist relationship to its logical conclusion: making the story a central aspect of treatment.
Preface 1. Listening to Chekhov 2. Narrative Medicine 3. Narrative Approaches to Psychotherapy 4. Narrative Approaches to Psychotherapy 5. Mrs. Dutta and the Literary Case 6. Mainstream Stories I: Biopsychiatry, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Psychoanalysis 7. Mainstream Stories II: Interpersonal Therapy, Family Therapy, and Humanistic Therapy 8. Alternative Stories: Spirtual Therapy, Expressive Therapy, and Cultural, Political, and Feminist Therapies 9. Doing Narrative Psychiatry 10. Critical Reflections Appendix: ""Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter,"" by Chitra Divakaruni Notes References Index
""Narrative Psychiatry is an important book, offering critical insights to both clinicians and to humanities scholars as to how their world views, their knowledge, and their methods work together to 'open the door' to a more nuanced practice of psychiatry.""
